My Brother bought an Accipiter Badius, and it looked like good quality for the money so I bought one too. We've flown together several times, and separately as well.

The badius is way tougher than you'd think. I augered in at full throttle from about 100 feet and was able to repair it. Damage to the wing only. The fuselage seems almost indestructible.

I suggest that you use clear packaging tape on the wing joint when assembling so that the holes in the wing root don't get torn out. Also, the wing will hold up a LOT better if you overlay the leading edge with the tape. Since the trailing edge is thin, I reinforced that the same way. If you tear a wing or tail, you can repair it with white glue (Elmers or Borden's. CA will dissolve the foam.) and clear packaging tape over the tear. It's an easy repair and it works great. And if you replace the prop, put a smudge of CA glue on the motor shaft before you push the prop hub on. Then set the plane nose-down so that no glue runs into the motor bearings. I had a prop get loose and come off in flight, that's why I suggest the CA glue. I took my eyes off the falling prop to land the plane and had a merry time finding the prop afterwards!

Here's the important part: This was my absolutely FIRST flight with R/C. Learning to fly has been a completely do-it-yourself project, I've had no coaching. The Badius can fly pretty fast in a shallow dive or at full throttle, but if you throttle back and don't get crazy, it just floats along. Plenty of time to recover from my mistakes. It's quite stable, but maneuverable enough to get you in over your head. To me, that means that as I get better skills, I'll still enjoy flying it. I read somewhere that someone had done a loop with it, but the wings flexed 'alarmingly'. I haven't looped it, but a sharp pullout from a dive will make you worry about the wing, so I can back up the comment. It's a sailplane, not an aerobat. By the way, I routinely overshoot my landings. this thing glides forever!

I have one criticism. The transmitter has two sticks, one for elevator and one for rudder. I think that's called "mode one". I REALLY wish it had a single stick, it'd be a lot more intuitive to fly. Also, the throttle is a knob on top (my Brother's) or a lever on the back of the transmitter (Mine) and it isn't real handy. Also, the battery charger will cook your battery if you leave it on for a long time. I'm careful to take mine off charge when I feel it getting warm.

All told, it's a cheap entry into R/C. From opening the box to taking it out to fly is less time than it takes to charge the battery. It's repairable, and unlike the cheapo planes with differential thrust for control, you actually have good proportional control of pitch, rudder, and throttle. For the price, you can't go far wrong! I'm still glad I bought mine!